A Serendipitous Key of Hope

Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts, and Naruto, do not belong to one man. They are owned by several different people. Kingdom Lightz is not one of them.

Yusei: Merry Christmas!

Takeshi: Because Lightz had this done ahead of time, we're here to bring you the second chapter to Key of Hope. In this chapter our mysterious enemy makes an attempt on Naruto.

Luna: Lucas, do you want to build a snowman?

Lucas: Snowman? It's the summer!

The Second Key: The Unknown Man

"Here you go pervy sage," Naruto says as he walks up to Jiraiya holding two bags with bento boxes. "Enjoy."

"What are you complaining about?" asks the old man as he stares at him. He takes out his own bento box to eat. "You're learning to train from a professional sage who is equaled only by two others. Buying lunch for him now and then is no big deal."

"I wouldn't mind that, if you didn't constantly use my money for your vices! How are you teaching me about the three taboos for a shinobi if you're doing them all in one hour?!"

"Only to the naïve mind of a child does it look like that, but in reality-"

"Yeah, yeah." Naruto turns away, sitting down while eating his bento meal.

Two weeks have passed since Naruto and Jiraiya have left Konoha. In that short time frame they have traveled across from the Land of Fire to Earth and Lightning. The blond shinobi has since never had the dream yet, but constantly remembers it. He also has been training in expanding his Rasengan and tactics in several ways, conducting forms like the Oodama Rasengan and Rasenrengan, though the latter is harder to come by. They're currently in the Land of Lightning in a valley just bordering from Kumogakure, looking out below at a couple of birds flying across a blue, partially cloudy sky.

As the time goes by, Naruto continues to worry about the dream. He felt a little strange about it, so he tells Jiraiya about it. Unfortunately, all he could tell him is that it was a bunch of nonsense. Him dreaming about the Shodaime Hokage is strange in and of itself, especially considering how poorly he did in school studying him. Though he notices something about how the pervy sage reacted to the woman he saw; it's as if he knows more about that woman than he wants Naruto to know. Curiouser and curiouser, he continues to wonder about the dream and its importance.

Right as he is about to take another bite from his bento, Jiraiya stands up suddenly causing Naruto to pause. "What's wrong?"

"Get up. We have company."

"Company?" Naruto tosses his box to the side of the cliff they're sitting on, before being gripped and pulled away. They both look up at the explosion that destroys the cliff, a strange light of white, blue and black. "What the hell was that?!"

Jiraiya lands on top of the sea below the cliff. Staring up, the two shinobi glance upon a man dressed in a black coat whose appearance was completely hooded. His hands spark with the same colors as the explosion lights.

Naruto gasps when he sees him, his heart giving a heavy pounding. The very man is standing before him, just like the many that was in his dream. "You! What are you doing here?"

His statement surprises the man, who stares down at him. "How curious. You seem as if you recognize me, and yet this is our very first appearance."

"Naruto, stay back." Jiraiya forms a handseal.

"Wait, let me fight with you!" he declares, taking out a kunai.

"No! You run!" Jiraiya utilizes the Hari Jizou no Jutsu, firing his hair needles out to turn the man into a pin cushion.

The cloaked man descends, each and every spike passing through him as if he were a ghost. "This man is nothing like any of the enemies you've faced so far. Orochimaru, Gaara, Akatsuki; none of them are on the level of this monster."

"A monster? How cruel." The man holds out a hand, releasing several beams of light.

Jiraiya's hair raises, continuously blocking the lights. He then produces more seals. "Gamayudan!" Oil spews from his mouth countering the lights, before splashing onto the cloaked man. He then forms a new seal, breathing flames that ignite brightly onto the cloaked man.

"Wow..." Naruto mutters seeing the old man at work.

The explosion of flames fade into nothing to their shock. The cloaked man walks through, a soft chuckle emitting through his coat. "Is this the best in your old age Jiraiya? How disappointing."

'Boy, you have to run!' Naruto looks around after hearing the voice.

'Who said that?' Naruto is soon brought from reality into the deepest recesses of his mind, which to his discouragement is still a murky sewer with the fox's cage. The demon glares at him from behind bars, revealing his full appearance to him. Annoyed, Naruto shouts, "What is it now?! I'm a little busy!"

"You have to get out of here brat!" he shouts, looking up from where he stands. "That man is not someone you can handle on your own. Not even that old fart sage can defeat him!"

"And what is you talking to me going to do about it?! If you don't send chakra you might as well just sit there and mope about being filled with hate!" Naruto doesn't have time to waste on this fox talking to him. If he's really the threat he's being brought up to be, there's no point in wasting time.

"You don't get it; he's after us!"

"What?" Naruto is brought back to reality when Jiraiya hits the ground hard enough. The cloaked man floats over to him.

"I'd rather live inside your stomach than be used by that bastard! So take this chakra and shove it down his throat!" Naruto twitches feeling the chakra inside of him spike, the red chakra forming in the shape of a demon fox.

'Alright, I'll go with it for now.' "Rasengan!" Naruto forms the Rasengan the same way he did against Sasuke not long ago, and rushes in to strike the man. He passes through him and misses, and the cloaked man holds a hand out to fire those spheres. But Naruto, having seen his abilities so far, turns around and pushes himself to him using a chakra arm. He then collides the Rasengan into his stomach, causing a massive explosion that blows him away.

Jiraiya stands back up beside Naruto. "Great. You're getting a bit better at using that power. But I told you to run!"

"I'm not backing down! I don't care who he is!" The blond ninja drops on all fours.

"Impressive... But, you're not anywhere near strong enough to defeat me." The man stands back up, not a single scratch on his coat. "Not even 10 percent."

'Damn. He's even stronger than you mentioned!' Naruto begins to tense up. This man who he just met is impossibly powerful. Despite him using the same attack that could hold up against Sasuke's Curse Seal enhanced Chidori failing to leave even a slight wound on this guy, this is devastating. Yet at the same time, he feels enthused that there are men this strong out there.

"Kneel." The cloaked man holds a hand out to him, gray lightning sparking out to ensnare Naruto. The chakra around him fades back inside, his blue eyes turning a dark gray. His mind slowly drops, going completely blank.

"Naruto!" Jiraiya shouts as he runs to him. Two copies fly off out from the man's body, who battle against Jiraiya. He dispatches them quickly with two Rasengan to their gut.

The original releases the power at work, having Naruto fall to the ground in a lifeless state. He grabs him and walks off, fading away along with the clones and the kidnapped.

Jiraiya drops to his knees, his hands digging into the soft stone. "I can't believe it..." His eyes come to know a familiar despair.

…

The man drops Naruto to the ground. His eyes stare down at his body, twitching from the damage of that move. "You are probably wondering in the depths of your heart what I'm about to do to you. Why I went through the trouble of capturing you. Why I am interested in you... it is beyond your comprehension for now, but know this."

He raises his hand, lifting Naruto in the air. "Hearts are power, and yours is one we demand in order to achieve our ambitions." He then uses the same move as before, forming energy around Naruto. Red chakra expels from his body.

Inside of his mind, the fox appears within Naruto's mind. "Well, it looks like we failed."

"Fox, who was that guy?! What's he doing?!" he asks him.

"He's extracting me from your body. Soon I will be gone, and your troubles will all be over. Because you'll be dead."

"EH?!" Naruto begins to panic throwing his arms about. "What do you mean I'm gonna die?!"

"Sealing a biju inside of a human is one thing, but removing them is another..." The fox looks to the side, tilting his head with a groan. "My chakra is already tied to you. So through this extraction your death is imminent."

"Imminent?"

"It's certain, dumbass!"

"Shut up!" Naruto looks away, dropping down to a knee feeling the effects of whatever the person is doing to him taking hold. "So, this is the end?"

"You'll die. I'll just be used for something much worse..." The fox grits his fangs, shimmering with intense hatred over what will happen to him. In the end it will be used by another person for their selfish goals.

"So, you got a name?" The question takes the fox by shock, who looks down at him.

"You're going to ask me that? Now of all times?"

"Why not? I mean, all this time you've been alive you must have had a name." The fox's bloodshot eyes focus into Naruto's, attempting to scare him. However, his heart remains strong as he smiles. "Oh come on, just say it; I mean, I'm about to die so you might as well give me your name."

"Well...It's not gonna matter now so...Kurama."

Naruto takes in the name Kurama, before snickering. "Kurama huh? That's so make-fun-able."

"Shut up!" Kurama hits the cage with his claws. "I come out to you and you make fun of me?! You humans suck!"

"I'm sorry Kurama, for letting you down." He calms down a bit, hearing the sincerity in his voice. "You said I'm going to die, not you. So that guy's going to use you... After all this time, I won't become Hokage after all. You got sealed inside of me for nothing."

"If the fourth Hokage hadn't sealed me away none of this would be happening."

"Yeah, you would have been free to live your life." Naruto's reply takes Kurama back, whose wide eyes stare at the truth in his heart. "What about that tanuki guy in Gaara? Does he and the others have names?"

"Of course they do, those annoying weaklings," says the fox with anger.

"What's with you?" Kurama looks down at him with a glare. "All you do is wrath, wrath, wrath at everything; every time I would use your chakra it's because I get anger right? Is that all you can feel?"

"What does a little brat like you know about my hatred? Or of the heart for that matter?" Kurama moves his head closer into the bars. "You who have been hated by others all your childhood, and have felt resentment eating at your heart; you have no right to talk against my hatred!"

"It's because of that hatred that I can say stuff like that!" Naruto snaps, causing the fox to take a step back. "I'm a prime example of coming out of resentment smiling. By becoming Hokage, I wanted to resolve that hatred in other shinobi. I hadn't had time to think about it, but a goal of sorts came to me when I fought Neji and Gaara. All that hatred they felt, all that hatred I worked hard to resolve, I want to stop other people from feeling that too! And seeing you, and all that hatred in your chakra...It makes me realize that Gaara's might be like that too..."

Naruto walks further to the gate, smiling large enough to bare his teeth. "That's why, I want to resolve your hatred too."

Kurama blinks, narrowing his eyes with a confused ease he's never felt before. "What?!"

"Yeah. I mean, it's your fault my life ended up the way it started out, but even I don't want you to suffer with a heart full of hatred forever. It sucks." Naruto's vision turns darker.

"How stupid are you?! You really think I could be influenced by some little kid who can't even stand up for himself?"

"You may think I'm a baby, but I'm not as immature as I was back then. After all, even I think it's worth a shot." Kurama calms down once more, even as his form begins to fade away. "Of course, that doesn't matter now anyway. I'm going to die..."

Kurama stares at Naruto with a huff. "Actually, there may be a chance for survival."

"Eh?"

"Remove the seal and I'll show you." Naruto stares over at the seal, wondering why that would save him. Shrugging, he reaches out to it and pulls on the tag.

"Just remember what you said."

Outside, the man continues to draw from Naruto, before a tiny stream is left as the last trace leaving his body. The man now holds a ball of red chakra, which compresses and transforms into a glowing red sphere shaped like a heart. "Kyubi, I have you now." He looks over to Naruto, who has fallen flat on his back. He remains motionless even as the cloaked man edges closer.

The two disappear shortly after his words.

…

"So, you have returned. Do you have the Kyubi's chakra?"

"No."

"What?!"

"It would seem he escaped with it. That boy is rather crafty."

"I fail to see how he could have escaped you."

"Quiet Zetsu."

"Even more, the boy is no longer of this world. Gone to another world, he will gain control of his new power. If you require further assistance, then you will have to aid me."

"Hey, that was not part of the deal!"

"My loyalties are not of Akatsuki, but the other way around. However, there is a way for you all to benefit greatly." Several yellow eyes appear in the shadows of the room. "With this power, the only thing you have to fear is fear itself."

…

In the dark recesses of a forest, a pack of simians come before a strange sight. Their eyes take note of an orange body laying curved in dirt and leaves. One such ape lands on top of the body, poking the face, revealed finally to be Naruto. The monkeys curiously examine his body, digging into his pockets and taking everything.

Naruto's body shifts, causing the simians to back up. The animals stare at him as he sits up, before dropping back down feeling an intense weight on his chest. 'My body... It's so heavy! But, I'm alive thanks to him...'

The boy falls back down, breathing heavily. "Too tired... Can't even speak..."

He looks around trying to get a view of his surroundings. 'A forest... Wait, how did I get here? How long was I out?'

He looks over at the monkeys, who shriek at him while running away. He digs into his clothes, and cringes when he picks out bugs. "I wanna scream... But too tired." He sighs before raising his hand, trying to grab a branch to pull himself up. But it's too far away for him to reach.

Out of nowhere, a trail of light shoots out between his hand. His eyes widen in shock when he sees that the same weapon he saw in the dream in his hand. "This is..." He examines the sword, before using it to hook onto the branch. Using it he pulls himself up, standing fully on his own.

He stumbles a bit, using the sword as a cane to stand. "Yes... Now I can get out of here." He limps forward. Strangely, even though his energy was cleanly gone earlier he now feels like he can make it. "Where am I though?" He looks forward and continues.

Night falls over as he comes before a town. He hears people celebrating and cheering, obviously a festival going on. A part of him is glad that he lived to see a joyous occasion. But as he enters the town, his sword disappears. He then drops into a face plant in the dirt, causing a few people to notice him.

…

In the village hidden in the leaves, a blond woman with large breasts leans forward in her seat at a desk within a tower. Her expression turns sour as she worries over the worst happening. All she can do is worry, and pray that Naruto is okay.

"Hokage-sama!" She quickly turns around, hoping for some good news. There she sees a black haired woman past her twenties standing, eyes slowly watering. "We found him."

The Hokage stands up tall running towards the jonin. "Where?! Who?!"

"A shinobi from Suna found him in a village on the outskirts of the Land of Fire," she tells him. "He sent a messenger bird to deliver the message to us."

"Shizune, prepare a squad immediately to find and retrieve him! We're bringing Naruto back!" she declares this strongly, and Shizune agrees. As she leaves, the Hokage sits back in her chair. A waterfall pours from her eyes as she smiles. "Naruto, you're okay you lucky devil... You really will live to be Hokage."

Kenshin: Merry Christmas my fellow readers!

Manabu: Now, before we end this, we would like to give you all a gift. Before Drive forms can even be thought up or available, or at the very least considered, Naruto learns Command Styles. Diamond Dust is chosen, but you're all allowed to choose up to three more.